love, from scratch
by thir13enth
Summary: Lucy knew she should have added more baking soda into the cupcakes, but Juvia reminds her they're set on winning the Grand Cupcake Games — even if they're up against cupcake celebrities Erza and Mirajane. Luvia, with implied Mirza/Erzajane and Gratsu.


**Oh my. It's my 100th story on Fanfiction. How sadly momentous.**

 **My little piece for the Luvia ship. Also featuring ships: ErzaJane/Mirza and Gratsu. (Basically everyone's gay and it's cute as fuck.)**

 **This fic ended up being a lot longer than I expected and a lot more introspective, so the pacing is a bit slower and the perspective a lot more fine-tuned than my usual writing, but I hope you enjoy all the same!**

* * *

They saw their impending defeat in the slowly deflating tops of their citrus coconut cupcakes.

They tried not to show it in their eyes when they looked over the flour-dusted counter to sneak a glance at their competition, but the scarlet-haired and silver-haired duo caught their gazes, returning smug looks, each brandishing spatulas covered with traces of their mint pistachio buttercream-based icing.

Lucy looked over at Juvia with a small frown on her lips and worried creases on her forehead.

"We're _done_ for," Lucy mouthed to the bluenette, continuing to whisk the yellow food coloring and crushed golden sprinkles into their tropical mango icing. "We should have used more baking soda!"

Her baking partner didn't stop fanning the three dozens of their aesthetically dying cupcakes, attempting to prevent the inevitable demise of their concaving tops. She shuffled over to Lucy's side.

"It's okay, Lucy!" Juvia exclaimed, her encouraging voice as vigorous as the self-made paper fans in her hands. "Juvia and Lucy can do it!"

"We're up against the _Demon Duo_ , Juvia! We never had a chance at winning from the start!" Lucy whispered into the other girl's ear, frustratingly turning the whisk counter-clockwise to better mix the contents of the bowl better.

"Hey!" Juvia scolded. "That is _not_ what Lucy said when Juvia and Lucy first opened our baking business!"

The blonde's lips twisted. "This isn't the same as staring a bakery…and also Natsu and Gray totally let us borrow money from them to start off and then let us cater at their fashion events so that we actually got some connections—but we don't have a crutch this time!"

Juvia suddenly stopped flapping her hands, moving them toward her hips, and fully turned to Lucy. She gave Lucy a determined stare.

"Juvia knows that Lucy is just as tough, maybe even _tougher_ , than those girls!" she encouraged. "And even if Lucy and Juvia doesn't win, it doesn't matter for Lucy or Juvia because Lucy and Juvia are doing this for fun and for experience!"

"I guess…"

"Does Lucy remember when Lucy had to introduce Juvia to Lucy's father?" Juvia continued. "If Lucy can do _that,_ Lucy can do _anything_. Right?"

Upon hearing the motivational words, a smile slowly curled over Lucy's lips. She took a moment to think before returning to Juvia's gaze, her brown eyes aflame with new passion.

"You're right," she repeated, putting more edge into her whisking. "You're right! We might not win, but we're going to make them sweat!"

"Yes!" Juvia affirmed, before looking back at the large red-numbered timer on the wall. "Juvia and Lucy have 14 minutes left. Lucy just has to give Juvia the icing to finish off, and while Juvia ices the cupcakes, Lucy just has to get the cake decorations and then put them on the stand!"

"Mhm! I'm all fired up!" the blonde agreed, nodding. She finished up the last whisk of her frosting and gestured that she was ready. Her baking partner quickly reached behind her for a pastry bag and held it open for Lucy to place the frosting into the plastic cone.

As they prepped the icing bag, they looked over again at their competitors—Erza Scarlet and Mirajane Strauss—for a moment. The women were gorgeous and so was their work. They flowed like water in the kitchen, passing by each other gracefully to adorn their perfect cupcakes with their creative decorations, every now and then when they scooted behind each other, they would give each other a quick slap on the butt or a fast peck to the cheek, all while looking absolutely elegant doing it.

It wasn't a secret that they were a couple, and their relationship was very proudly flaunted on their cooking show, in their social media, and even confirmed and written out in words in their exclusive interview last month with Magnolia's most popular food magazine.

If Lucy was being honest with herself, it was inspiring to see such the two women so emboldened by their sexuality and so brave about being _so_ out and not letting it stop them from taking over the baking industry with their queerness—but _geez_ , there was no way that Lucy would ever be able to see herself…fondling Juvia while they waited for the cookies to cool down or...clean the icing off Juvia's finger with her tongue— _while on camera_!

The blonde sighed, placing the spatula back into the empty frosting bowl, and swiveled around to check on the cooling chocolate-covered biscuits. "The Demon Duo has won this cupcake contest for seven years in a row, Juvia," Lucy reminded her counterpart.

Juvia wasn't daunted. "Well Lucy and Juvia will do the best that we can! Juvia is certain!" she repeated, bending forward to the cupcakes after attaching the icing nozzle onto the pastry bag, holding the frosting like the baking expert she was.

Lucy watched Juvia carefully squeeze icing from the number four tip around the cupcake craters and felt an oven warm feeling stirring within her.

God, Lucy thought to herself. Sometimes she wondered how she was even able to meet such a compassionate, patient, and supportive girlfriend. Sure, while in culinary school, she was able to make a lot of small talk with aspiring part-time pastry chefs or restaurant entrepreneurs, but she never realized that there was a chance for romance between the early hours prepping dough and late nights coming up with new flavor combinations.

And now…well, she was living her dream of having an independent cupcake shop, free to explore the craft, free to give back to the community that hosted her store, and free to love who she truly loved…

But for the next 10 minutes, she had to buckle the fuck down.

Lucy shook the thoughts out of her head. Juvia was right. They had come _so far,_ and she was not going to let some really popular and really gorgeous women put down her own self-value!

She rolled leaf-shaped green fondant around the chocolate-covered Pocky-like biscuits that they had laid out earlier in the baking session, forming edible palm trees.

Juvia and Lucy were working on a beach-themed cupcake, maybe a bit too obvious with their citrus coconut white cupcakes, the light yellow mango-flavored icing with golden sprinkles, and edible palm tree decorations. On the other hand, Mirajane and Erza seemed to be working on a fairy-themed mint chocolate cupcake—or at least that was what Lucy could tell from the smell of cupcakes, the color scheme of the decorations on their counter, and most especially from the chocolate wings they were cooling on wax paper.

Indeed, their competitors were definitely making a more elegant and upper-class looking cupcake, Lucy was certain that the cupcakes that she and Juvia baked were just as impressive—excluding the fact that Juvia was currently compensating for the crater in the tops of their cupcakes with extra frosting, which would definitely be noticed by the judges.

But there was nothing that could be done about the tops of their cupcakes—Lucy would just have to make some more frosting to make up for the extra amount used to fill in the hole.

After wrapping making several more trees, she glanced over at Juvia again, admiring the woman's immense concentration—small sweat droplets on her forehead, some stray strands of her beautiful ocean blue hair floating in the air just above her eyes—

"Wait!" Lucy exclaimed, putting down the half-down fondant tree and excitedly going over to Juvia's side. She checked the countdown timer quickly—5 minutes and 17 seconds.

"Hm?" Juvia replied, not stopping her perfect icing.

"I have an idea!" she continued. "What if we turned the tops of the cupcakes into an oasis?"

Seeing Juvia's confused face, Lucy pointed to one of the un-iced cupcakes. "We can just fill in the crater with blue frosting and pass it off like it's an oasis in the middle of the desert! We already have the palm trees and the sand frosting and you need extra icing to put in the middle anyway!"

The ultramarine's eyes slowly widened and a bright flush dusted over her cheeks as her mouth opened into a gasp. "Juvia is so inspired! Juvia think that's a great idea!"

Lucy couldn't help the little bounce in her feet, the skip of her heart, seeing her partner validate her crazy last minute idea.

"I'll make it deep ocean blue, and I'll put some of the clear sugar crystals in it, and I'll make it a little runnier so that you can do your magic with the icing effects to make it seem as water-like as possible!" she rambled, immediately grabbing a bowl behind her and putting her idea into action.

"Yes!" Juvia agreed, shuffling over to where Lucy had dropped off the half-finished cake decorations. "Juvia will finish up the palm trees!"

Throwing together the ingredients, Lucy felt her mouth form into a competitive grin. She checked the time again—5 minutes and 4 seconds—and set herself right into the rhythm of whisking the icing together, not caring for the burn of lactic acid in her bicep, not caring for the every-so-often click of her wrist with every rotation.

They were going to do this! The cupcake was going to end up being _even better_ than they had planned from the start!

Four minutes, and Juvia was sticking the palm trees carefully and _just at the right angle_ into the cupcakes that already had the sand-golden icing. Lucy was hurriedly putting the blue icing into the bag, prepping the tip and passing the rest to Juvia—her icing queen.

Three minutes, and Juvia was applying the blue icing over the cupcake tops with the beautiful silky icing that Lucy had just freshly made while Lucy took over completing the more basic icing for the remaining naked cupcakes.

Two minutes, and the two of them together finished up the last dozen cakes—Juvia filling in the oasis water in the center and Lucy placing two palm trees on one side of the cupcakes.

One minute, and Lucy showered some sugar pearls over the sand-yellow icing while Juvia scooted back and forth between their artfully finished cupcakes and the presentation tray.

"And that's time!" the announcer called.

Lucy and Juvia threw up their hands away from the cupcakes, tucking their hands behind their back, and looked forward at the judges. Lucy quickly glanced over at the mint-chocolate team; they were standing—still confident—but her discerning eye could tell that even they were a tinge nervous.

She looked over at their cupcakes, internally comparing the two of them.

Erza and Mirajane's cupcakes were what she expected: a minimalistic but elegant dark chocolate cupcake with mint-pistachio buttercream frosting, with chocolate fairy wings perched on top and a square of some kind of a crunchy looking decoration.

"Please present your cupcakes!" the producer shouted. "Ms. Scarlet and Ms. Strauss, please begin!"

"Good evening, judges," Erza started, strong and confident. "Mirajane and I would like to present to you, our Fairy Glitter cupcake—a decadent royal chocolate cupcake filled with Godiva truffle and topped with mint-pistachio frosting, dark chocolate wings, and a square of classic mint chocolate."

The cupcake was _filled_ with Godiva truffle?! Lucy hadn't even noticed when they had piped _anything_ into their cupcakes! How did they have the time to do _that_ on top of the elaborate decorations?!

The three judges—Lahar, Toma, Yajima—gingerly took the cupcakes and took a bite before setting it back down on their plate. Lahar wrote some notes down, Yajima put his hand on his chin to think, and Toma simply smiled at the two of them.

"Simply delectable- _kabo_."

"I completely agree, but I worry that the filling overpowered the lightness of the mint frosting."

"I think so as well, but the aesthetic of the cupcake is simply alluring. This is one of the cupcakes that you look at and you _know_ it was done by a professional."

"But does the look match the taste?"

"You can't go wrong with chocolate and mint, after all…"

After another brutal minute of talking back and forth, the producer moved onto the next cupcake.

Lucy's nerves were rattled, and Juvia noticed this, so she stepped up to introduce the cupcake.

"Juvia and Lucy presents our cupcake, Paradise—a light melt-in-your-mouth citrus coconut cupcake topped with mango icing. We hope to evoke the feeling of a warm sunny beach with our homemade palm trees and ocean blue waters!"

And again, the three judges—Lahar, Toma, Yajima—gingerly took the cupcakes and took a bite before setting it back down on their plate. Lahar wrote some notes down, Yajima put his hand on his chin to think, and Toma simply smiled at the two of them.

"An interesting flavor."

"The elementary look of the cupcake is a little surprising- _kabo_."

"However, the flavor that is evoked in the batter is not basic."

"I'm unsure if mango-flavored icing was the right direction to go to match the coconut and citrus."

"It _is_ a heavy batter—it looks like the top of the cupcake didn't quite make it."

The judges all chuckled a little bit, and each laugh stabbed Lucy's heart with worry. She tried to keep as calm as possible, looking over at Juvia, whose face also bowed down to the floor, a stoic face.

"Alright then, contestants!" the producer announced, motioning behind the four women. "Please step back behind the white line there!

"And judges! Please make your decisions wisely! The winner of the Grand Cupcake Games will go home with 25,000 Jewels and an exclusive deal to cater at the Grand Magic Games coming up later this year!"

Lucy took a deep breath, looking to Juvia for some support, who nodded with a quick gesture of support. They stepped back behind the designated line—standing and proud for the answer, ready for their judgment. She watched the three men whisper among themselves, debating whether she should feel hopeful or just kill every single shred positivity within her so that she could prepare for the very worst.

It was either a straight win or loss though, and she wasn't the one making the decisions.

Time elapsed—feeling dreadfully long but also painfully short, and when the judges turned back to them, and Lahar cleared his throat.

"I think we're ready to make a decision now," the young man said.

"Indeed- _kabo_."

"I fully agree."

The producer took it as a cue to step up to the front once more, holding the microphone to the slim dark-haired man. "And who will be crowned as the winner tonight, Lahar?"

"The winner of the Grand Cupcake Games—" Lahar said, slowly.

Lucy held her breath.

"—is Lucy Heartfilia and Juvia Locker's Paradise cupcake!"

"Wha-what?" Lucy gasped, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. "W-We…we won?!"

"We believed that your cupcake truly pushed the limits of cupcake creativity- _kabo_ ," Toma began.

"In the beginning, we saw that you had not used as much baking powder as you should have in the original recipe, but you took it to your advantage and made something completely new out of it!" Yajima explained.

"Of course," Lahar added, with a small smile, "there is a lot to work on in terms fo refining the presentation, but we believe that you have the most potential to grow from what you have already. Congratulations, Lucy, Juvia."

Lucy closed her eyes. "Oh my god!" she hiccupped, before turning to Juvia.

"Lucy!" Juvia exclaimed, pouncing to her side and hugging her tightly. "Lucy and Juvia did it!"

"Oh my god," she repeated, crushed under Juvia's strong embrace.

This was not happening. There was no way.

But it was! They…won! They actually _won_?!

"Congratulations," a smooth lower voice said behind her.

Lucy turned around, and Juvia looked up as well.

"M-Ms. Scarlet!" Lucy immediately greeted, facing the redhead and her girlfriend. "And Ms. Strauss!"

Mirajane smiled brightly at them. "Congratulations!"

"Th-thank you!" Lucy automatically blurted. "I…I'm a fan of your show!"

Erza laughed heartily, putting out her hand to shake it. "Well, I'm a fan of your winning cupcakes."

"Ms. Scarlet-san can try one if she likes! Juvia doesn't think that the judges will be eating the rest of them!" Juvia stuttered, also in awe, shakily grabbing a cupcake from the back of the display and handing it to Erza with both hands. "D-does Ms. Strauss want one as well?"

"Oh, I can share with Erza," Mirajane cooed, swiping the cupcake away from Erza's mouth after the redhead pulled the cupcake wrapper away.

"Hey!—"

"Mmm, _delicious_ ," Mirajane said, after taking a bite. She passed the bitten cupcake back to Erza, who ate the rest of it in one bite—although somehow the scarlet-haired woman did it very elegantly.

"This definitely deserved to win," Erza agreed, licking some icing off her fingers.

"I think the pool in the center of the cupcake was _very_ creative," Mirajane teased, winking at the two of them. "It's almost like you _planned_ to place it in there from the start."

Lucy blushed.

"Oh, don't be mean, Mira," Erza admonished, bumping her hip into Mira. "They employed their imagination at the right time. We just sat comfortably with the same recipe and didn't innovate at all."

"Well, thank you so much!" Lucy said, bowing her head down. "It means so much to have competed with you on this program! I was so inspired by you both!"

"Juvia too!" Juvia added, doing the same.

The redhead gave them a warm smile, before looking to the side. "Well," she said, gesturing to a small army of people holding tech equipment, led by a man in a suit with a microphone in his hand. "It looks like they're here to interview the winners."

"Maybe we'll see you later!" Mira chirped.

Before following after Erza, who was already on her way out of the screening area, Mira leaned closed to Lucy's ear.

"By the way, you two are super cute!" she whispered.

The blonde blinked in shock again, feeling her heart in her throat and heat rise to her cheeks once more.

"Ms. Lockser!" the man with the microphone suddenly shouted as they got within camera distance of the two of them, throwing the microphone up to the bluenette's face. "How do you feel about this win? Who would you like to thank for getting you this far?"

"Ah…" Juvia had to start and restart a number of times before she was able to get her words out. "Juvia is very happy, of course! And Juvia is very happy that she has come this far with Lucy! Juvia is so grateful for this opportunity! And Juvia wants to thank especially Juvia's friends in the audience—Gray and Natsu—for coming out to support Juvia and Lucy!"

"Fantastic! And Ms. Heartfilia, what was the inspiration for your and Ms. Locker's winning Paradise cupcakes?" the interviewer asked, swiveling toward her.

"Um…" Lucy stuttered, still surprised at their unexpected win. She glanced over at Juvia, who gave her a warm encouraging smile. "Um…"

Lucy watched Juvia take a deep breath in and out, still rushed from the adrenaline of the last five minutes, and watched the other woman untie her hair, sweeping the blue blue waves back and forth over her shoulders, letting her tresses tumble and loosen over her shoulders.

"The ocean," Lucy replied finally, voice a little unsteady with her confession. "I remember the feeling of standing by the ocean holding the hand of the person I love."

"That sounds absolutely romantic," the man responded. "We'll have to find out who that very special man is now, won't we?"

The blonde made her best effort to simply smile.

"And are there any secret ingredients to making these absolutely scrumptious cupcakes?" he continued. "Citrus coconut is not something you hear about on your everyday cupcake!"

"Um…" Lucy hesitated again, discreetly looking to her partner for support.

Juvia gave her a thumbs up and a grin.

"Love, of course," Lucy said, returning a soft smile, the shakiness from her voice gone. "They're baked with love."

* * *

 **God, what a fucking cheesy ending. Sue me. And yes, I have watched a lot of Food Network.**

 **Anyway, that was incredibly fun to write and I sorta _love_ this cupcake universe. I might end up writing more side stories within it. Sigh.**

 **thir13enth**


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